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The Real Four Best Climate Change Stories of 2013

By Logan Albright, Research Assistant, FreedomWorks

In the midst of what is shaping up to be a remarkable winter, liberals are doing their level best to cling to the fiction of human caused global warming. Recently, Neil Bhatiya of the Century Foundation, in an apparent effort to gin up the troops, published what he calls “2013’s Four Best Climate Change Stories,” celebrating increased regulations and executive overreach by governments to try to tell their citizens how to live. Curiously absent from the article, is any mention of the rapidly evaporating evidence for global warming.

In the interest of being fair and balanced, then, here are what I consider to be the real four best climate change stories of 2013.

1. The Lowest Temperature Ever Recorded on Earth

In July, scientists used NASA satellite data to record the lowest temperature ever measured on Earth, a nippy -135.8 degrees Fahrenheit or -93.2 degrees Celsius. This easily surpasses the previous record of -128.6 degrees. At that temperature, it’s dangerous even to breathe without first warming the air, and can be compared to what you might find on Mars.

2. Snow in Cairo for the First Time in 112 Years

In December, the typically balmy Israel was treated to three feet of snow, while Cairo experienced its first snowfall in 112 years, bringing delight and wonder to citizens who had never experienced it before. The snow spread to other Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon, where the sight is certainly a rarity, and officials in Israel reported that this was the heaviest December snowfall since 1953.

3. Antarctic Sea Ice Hits 35-Year Record High

In September, the National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that the amount of sea ice in Antarctica had expanded to its highest level in thirty-five years, baffling climate scientists who had been predicting shrinking ice levels. This marks the second year in a row that Antarctic sea ice has hit record highs.

4. Arctic Sea Ice Grows 29 Percent

In 2007, the BBC reported that we could expect to see the Arctic becoming completely free of ice by 2013. This year, the amount of ice expanded by 533,000 square miles, an increase of 29 percent. The Northwest Passage has become blocked with ice, forcing cancellations of planned yachting and cruising expeditions.

It is now widely accepted that global warming is taking a “hiatus,” although no one can say why or for how long. What is clear is that every climate model being used to persuade governments around the world to cut carbon emissions and invest in green energy, at great cost to their economies, has been wrong.

Science is in danger when it becomes a political tool to advance an agenda instead of searching for the truth. The fact that those on the left seem determined to ignore the evidence of cooler temperatures and their proven failures as climate forecasters indicates that the debate on climate change is more about ideology than it is about facts.